70 Proceedings of the 



34. Tympannchus americaniis (R e i c h e n b a c h) — Prairie 

 Chicken. 

 Although I saw but a single Prairie Chicken during 1911, 

 I found the birds in numbers during 1912, when, in the 

 earlier part of May, the loud booming of the males could 

 be heard in the early morning from different points in 

 the surrounding prairie. A few weeks later flocks of 

 downy young were found, ranging the hills in charge 

 of their watchful mother. Several times I came across 

 the young birds when my first indication that they were 

 near at hand was the sight of the parent skulking through 

 the grass or fluttering over the hill, apparently badly 

 hurt. In such cases I refused to be deluded and began 

 to search for the little striped fellows hidden in the 

 grass, often with the result of finding them almost un- 

 der my feet. There was no movement on their part to 

 tell me they were there nor did they do anything but 

 squat fiat to earth until I picked them up. No sooner 

 would I lift one in my hand, however, than it would set 

 iip a loud peeping which generally brought the mother 

 on a run. In one such instance the parent bird appeared 

 over the crest of the hill, where she had skulked away at 

 my approach, and came directly toward me with half- 

 open wings, as if to drive me away. When within a few 

 feet of me she turned quickly and ran in a wide circle 

 about me, clucking all the while like a barnyard hen. 

 Finding that her efforts to drive me away were of no 

 avail she flew with whirring wings over the hill only to 

 return and circle about me in the same way as before, 

 still clucking loudly. This time the chicks left their 

 hiding places, and, with subdued peepings, ran under 

 cover of the vegetation in the direction of the place where 

 the mother had taken a stand and when I left a few 

 moments later not a chick was to be seen. At this time 

 the young were light yellow in color beneath, tinged with 

 warm brown dorsally and with two black stripes down the 

 back, each stripe broken in two places, thus giving the 

 appearance of six short black streaks. The head was 

 brownish yellow dorsally, marked with a central row of 

 blackish blotches and with smaller black markings in 

 the post-ocular region. 

 About this time, also, I found several nests full of egg- 



